Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery - Chilhowie

 Sigh, I was not going to participate in the mystery this year. I have 2 started that I have not finished, and I even purchased the patterns that I had misplaced so I could finish them at some point. On Ringo Lake 2017 and Grassy Creek Mystery 2020. So.... why am I going to make 2022's Chilhowie you ask?

The colors. 

Irises, orange, purple, teal and neutrals. How can you go wrong with those colors in a quilt? I might have even splurged and headed over to the shop recommended and attempted to grab the fabric bundles. 

Will you be playing along this year?

16 patch Stars.... progress.

I added a yellow and a teal star to the pile. The pink was nearly done - just has one seam to go but you can see what my trouble was with finishing it. Someone wanted attention. It was time to turn off the machine and go check out the F1 race, anyway.

The finished stars so far. I like the secondary pattern of the squares in the corner. I was thinking that a half square triangle there would look pretty neat as well, so I might try that with the other set of 16 patch blocks.

 

Row House Accuquilt Sew Along

 The Table Scrap Challenge this month was light or bright greens with the RSC and something 'Joyful'. It gave me joy to play with some new dies in my Cube for Accuquilt that I have not tried before. I also pulled some Kansas Trouble Fabrics that always make me smile. Playing along with a sew along was an added bonus! All in all, this project was a joy to create, and I love how it turned out.

Now I went a little rogue - and added the binding before quilting it. I knew it needed to get bound for this post, but I am planning to add some hand quilting to this in the house, trees and probably some in the brown ground area and maybe the outer border. There is F1 this weekend so I should have plenty of time to add that stitching in. 

Linking up with Joy at the TSC 2022 and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.... despite not using bright green.

Emily and I just got back from the fairgrounds where there was training for the record books, buyer letters and some instruction on how to show the heifer and what the judges are looking for. We also did a tour of the grounds. Emily was feeling better today, and the Sudafed kicked in so there was minimal blowing her nose and coughing during the 2 hours we were there. There was a pile of Kleenex in the car on the way there before the Sudafed kicked in! The kids informed me I need to go sign out another box of Sudafed from the pharmacy as they are down to 2 pills. Trust me, the off brand does not work as well as the real Sudafed. 

Bonnie Hunter Mysteries?

When I was doing a little searching in the sewing room this month, I might have come across 2 started mysteries. My computer that had the directions saved off died, so a little sleuthing and I determined that each was a digital pattern available at Quiltville shop! I got both patterns and now just need to start plugging away at them.

Neither project was added to my UFO list this quarter. I doubt either would get finished this quarter anyway!

On Ringo Lake was from 2017 and Grassy Creek was 2020.

It looks like I got to step 2 of On Ringo Lake. I love the colors in this one - peachy orangey coral, teal and brown with neutrals.

I got to step 4 or 5 on Grassy Creek.! I know I have seen these baggies somewhere in my sewing room recently.

These were my colors from the pull (or shopping pull!) I know I have been using some of them so I might need to restock. Good thing it is a scrappy quilt! I swapped her grey for blue on this one.

The girl has been home sick Wednesday through today with a terrible head cold. Let's just say - about 4-5 boxes of kleenex have been used already. She is a little better today but still coughing and blowing so she stayed home and I got her a Dr. appointment this afternoon to get her note to go back to school next week. If they are out 3 days in a row, a parent note is not sufficient, so we need to pay that Dr. co-pay and get a note! Greg will have to take her as I need to go pick up the boy from school.

Greg has been getting dizzy still in the afternoons so hopefully he will be ok to take her. The Dr is about 5 minutes away from our house, vs the 20 minute drive to the school for pick up. 

Unfortunately, I have a feeling she has shared her germs with us. I'll have to clorox the house down each day this weekend.

*** Update on Emily. Greg took her to the Dr's. It is not Flu (she had her shot a few weeks ago) and it is not COVID. Just one of the many viruses going around. We got the needed Dr note to get her back into school on Monday with an excused absence. I picked up the boy....who sneezed and blew his nose on the way home. Seems everyone at school is sick! Welcome to winter a wee bit early. I guess those 2 years of home and masking got everyone's immunity down a bit this year. 

More stars growing from the 16 patch blocks.

 These guys are oh so fun to make! I think I spend more time selecting the fabrics than piecing them. I get out my trust Fons and Porter Flying Geese ruler and get a 4.5 strip of fabric to cut out the parts that will finish as a 4x8 flying geese unit. The square in the corner is a 2.5 inch square and I love the secondary pattern it creates when there are 4 together.

I have one more cream all cut out for the 4th block. I just need to pick a 16 patch from the pile and select the matching color for the star points. 

Slightly quieter week, thank goodness! Em was a late pick up Monday and no scouts but Aidan did have guitar. Normal pick up Tuesday, Wednesday is a late pick up for both with Book Club after school and volunteering at the middle school for the boy. Thursday is normal and I get to ride a horse on my day off again this week!. Friday is an early drop off for Emily at school. Saturday she has some training at the fairgrounds for the February Youth Fair she will be attending with the FFA. I need to swap horses to Sunday instead of Saturday. Aidan has an F1 race again this week in Mexico this time. Another Sunday afternoon race. I wonder what hand work I'll have to work on this time. Another binding maybe? We will see.....

October OMG Finish - Crossed Canoe.

 

My goal this month was to finish the last few blocks and get it assembled, quilted and bound. I'm happy to report that this 36x54 quilt is completed! I'll link up to the October OMG Finish post when the link opens.

This is #14 on my Fall 2022 UFO list. Crossed off and onto the next UFO.

Slow Stitching Sunday

 It was a nice and relaxing day Saturday with no running for me! I did not even get near my car for once and it was oh so nice. Greg took Emily to horses, so I got to relax and play in the sewing room, then watched the F1 practice and qualifying with Aidan.

I have not made much progress on hand quilting the bear paw but hopefully it will move along this week a bit each night.

I have been working on hand stitching the binding on the Crossed Canoe and should get this finished up later today during the race.

I got the Row House sew along runner at Accuquilt completed yesterday. I pulled all from the stash - a Kansas Trouble line, then a brown print for the ground and a mottle sage I had for the border. I 'might' hand quilt this rather than machine quilt it. We will see. I need to pull a backing and batting for it and trim it up a bit and then I'll decided. It might just want to get finished. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers. 

 

As promised here are the sad looking girls who are in various processes of their yearly molting. They tend to molt in the fall and their feathers fall out so new ones come in. They tend to not lay eggs while they are molting, and their crowns change from a bright red to a dull red. Once they change back to bright red, they will be laying eggs again. 

These are the 5 girls. All the reds have passed on, which is a bummer as they were great layers being part Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White mix.

The 3 Barred Rock or Plymouth Rock's are the black and white ones. Myrtle, Maple and DC - Daisy Chickalotta. The top brown with a beard is Poppy an Americana and she lay's my pretty green eggs. Rosie is also an Americana, and she lays small white eggs. From what I can tell, she is not molting as she has all her feathers. One of the Rocks is mostly through her molt as she has all her tail feathers back - I think that is Myrtle. She doesn't have a bright crown yet though so no eggs.

You can see the fluff feathers on Poppy, those will fall off and her tail feathers have mostly fallen out. 

A better shot with just 1 tail feather for Poppy and DC has bald spots on her back end and is missing tail feathers.... but the one on the left has her tail feathers all grown in.

I mentioned Emily made some Molt muffins for the chickens. It is a high protein snack that helps them to grow those new feathers but must be given in moderation. They get 1-2 muffins to split between them each day. She made 2 pans (24) muffins so it should last us through the molt. 

I promised Chicken Tikka Masala for the boy for dinner tonight, so I need to grab the chicken and prep it with the yogurt and spices for marinating in the fridge today.  Have a great Sunday.

RSC Saturday

 I am thankful I have one more weekend of light and bright green! I still need to make my 2 Garden Path blocks and hope to work on them this weekend. 

I did get the Crossed Canoe's quilted last weekend and just need to hand stitch the binding down. It has been a crazy week and no stitching happened in the evenings at all! I should be able to get this finished up today while watching the F1 practice and qualifying with my son.

I finished up the star points for my 16 patch blocks and love how it came out. Now to grab one of each 16 patch color from the pile to make their matching star points. This is now a 16 inch block. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

It was a chilly 43 outside when the dog whining got me up around 8. Turns out Emily was already up with him, silly dog. It will warm up quickly and get up to 80 degrees. I have enjoyed the cooler weather and wearing jeans and even a sweater and coat for morning walks with the dog for the last few days. The animals have all loved the cooler weather and have lots of energy - the dog, the cats, even the chickens! We did have an incident this week where the chicken gate was not latched quick enough and the dog got in..... he just wanted to play but the chickens were not happy. My Poppy (lays my pretty green eggs) was in his mouth for a while but other than being terrified, she has escaped mostly unharmed but did lose a few feathers.  I'll post some photo's of the chickens tomorrow. 

A little sewing progress

 After running errands on Thursday - a try at horse riding but the horse was not in the mood and we opted to do the lesson another day. Then some groceries so Emily could make some Molt Muffins for the chickens.... we needed applesauce and more banana. A quick lunch of crack slaw (using up the last 2 links of italian sausage and some cabbage for a yummy lunch)... I finally got some sewing room time! The cat even left me alone for the first hour before he slung himself over the sewing machine to monitor my progress. I finished the flying geese, got them pressed and into their tree form.

Then I sewed the houses together with their roofs and sides. 

I am not sure if I will make it into a long runner like the pattern is for.... or if I will do 2 houses and 2 trees facing opposite ways for a table topper that is a little more square as opposed to a long strip across. I need to determine that before I add on the blue sides.

We have made it through the week! Emily had a great time up in Georgia despite the cool front that moved through that day. She had 3 layers of clothes and was toasty warm outside all day. Seems she was not hungry so did not eat much up there other than the homemade lemonade she always gets at the fairgrounds and a funnel cake! We stopped at Culvers for a late dinner on the way home Wednesday. She took some cotton out of her pocket.... and proceeded to work the seeds out the rest of the night. She really wanted to grow some cotton in the back yard, but after some research, it is illegal to grow non-commercially in Florida due to the boll weevil. The top is the seeds and the bottom is the cotton. 

F1 is racing in Texas this weekend. No late nights this weekend!

Accuquilt Row House Sew Along.

 I have the 8 inch cube and other than using one shape to help make my HST's for the Garden Path Block, I have not used any of the other seven shapes! I saw this cute row house sew along and it uses a few of the shapes I have not used yet. I figured it was a good opportunity to use some Kansas Troubles Fabrics that I love and make a cute table runner. I'm calling this my 'joyful' challenge for October but will only be using some darker greens instead of the light and bright greens of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Those fabrics are just tickled pink to get out of the bottom drawer and get used in this project. For the background I went with some blue print scraps that were hanging out on the cutting board after I trimmed the Crossed Canoe quilt Sunday morning.

I'll have to wait and sew the parts another day though, someone decided the machine needed to stay off! Silly Peanut.

I think this will be the house with a different roof for each of the 4 houses.

These will be made into trees - 4 sets of trees

. 

This is a photo of the runner.

With a busy week we will see how it goes. The trees and houses are cut out so sewing them up in little bits of time should be easy to do. 

Monday - scouts - girls are making pizza's, guitar for Aidan. Late pick up for Em mandatory FFA chapter animal meeting.

Tuesday - we have a meeting at school with Aidan for 9th grade gifted. Late pick up with FFA meeting.

Wednesday - the girl has an early 6:30 am drop off and a full day trip to Georgia with the FFA/Ag class. Aidan is volunteering after school until 6 - so I get to work late!

Thursday night we have a parent meeting on the DC trip in December.

Friday night - I am finally doing a lady's night at the barn riding horses for games, then wine and appetizers and chatting afterwards. Emily probably has early drop off for Horse Evaluation studying.

Slow Sunday .....

I sure do hope today is a lot slower than yesterday! I felt like I was running in the car all day long. At least there were lots of animal petting involved in my travels. Today, Greg took Emily to school to feed the chapter animals. I took her yesterday afternoon. They don't have the heifer that she will show yet, but they picked up the chapter pig Friday and have the chapter lamb already. The school is housing a few other animals for the kids, but they are responsible for caring for them, so she just had to feed, water and exercise the lamb and the black pig. 

This one was so darn cute.... for a goat!

Chapter pig - so she cleaned his stall and fed him. There is an auto waterer for them.

Exercising Stetson the lamb.

The goat and lamb enclosure.

We started off the morning with a lot of time at the barn. Lots of staff was at Nationals in Oklahoma so there was just 2 staff juggling everything with a couple of call outs. Having to wait an extra 30 minutes on the lesson meant they got extra riding time in the arena! This is Mack - or Marshmallow is his barn name. It appears he really only likes Emily riding him =). She got lots of walking, trotting and a few canters in. 

After finishing up the animal duties at school I dropped Emily to a friend's house for an evening of movie watching. That let me finally get into the sewing room where this fellow thought he needed attention. Yes, I managed to quilt that last quarter of this crossed canoe with Peanut on it behind the sewing machine! I relented and didn't move him to get it trimmed and make and attach the binding last night. I'll do that this morning. It is 36x54.

I hope to be adding some binding stitches to this later tonight. We will see if it is after a pick up at Grandma's or not. Emily is staying home as she might meet up with a friend who is up from Miami this weekend. The boy was sneezing and blowing all day yesterday so we will see if he is up to visiting Grandma today. He thinks it is allergies. I have yet to hear him.... we was in his room sneezing and blowing his nose by this time yesterday so maybe he got some sleep?

A little progress was made on the Bear Paw this week. I am debating on how to quilt the inner paw - 3 straight lines or a rounded paw pad? Until I decide I'll continue outlining the outer paw triangles and the inner sashing areas. 

Linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Stitchers.

RSC

 I have not done much sewing this week. I did just pop into the sewing room this morning and found the Fons and Porter Flying geese ruler and cut out the parts for the 4 geese I need to make these 16 patches into stars. I never know what to use as the background but the one deeper cream print I grabbed did not have much, so I pulled this yard of a light cream to use. We will see how long it lasts! Maybe I'll do a few with this background and then a few in some other fabrics to continue with the scrappy theme. By adding the flying geese to the 8 inch blocks they will turn into 16 inch blocks. I think I'll add a black and a brown 16 patch to the pile and use 12 different colors to make a nice 3x4 setting. No time to sew them yet as the girl has horses at 11 that I need to bring her to.

We are having way too much takeout and since I had no thoughts on dinner Thursday - we opted for Publix subs at the new store that opened about 3 miles from us. That is going to be dangerous!

Friday night was Veggie Lo Mein instead of pizza. The recipe is under my recipe tab way at the bottom. 

It did clear out my veggie drawer so I'll need to go replenish - although I do have half a head of cabbage and a bunch of napa cabbage to use. I guess we will be having Keto Crack sausage and cabbage one of these nights for dinner to use it up!

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Slow stitching on a Sunday

 I am relaxing this afternoon with some hand quilting while watching Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grinderwald.  I just finished the feather circle and I think it needs a grid behind it. Still thinking on it but I'll work on the bear paw for a bit as a change. 

I was awake from 1AM-4:30AM this morning watching and waiting on the F1 race in Japan. It started on time at 1 and made 3 laps before the accidents and dangerous conditions caused a red flag for a couple of hours. We were wondering if it would resume or not - but things cleared up enough to get the last 40 minutes of the timeframe in and it was quite an exciting 40 minutes! Aidan slept until noon! I got woken up about 8:45 by the dog. The cats decided to venture out to the living room with us since the dog was shut in a room sleeping. It was nice to see them get comfy with each other again as they have been in separate parts of the house for the last few months. 

Despite a few hours of sleep before the race, I am just tired today and don't feel like doing too much! I did pop out to the new Publix grocery store that opened near us. That will be very tempting to pop out and get a yummy sub for lunch, I think. 

The kids are off school tomorrow, so I scheduled dentist and yearly doctor checkups for them. They did not want to be pulled from school for them. 

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitching.

RSC in bright green

It is going to be a long day! My son follows F1 racing, and they are in Japan this weekend. That makes for very early watching! I was up late (for me!) and watched the Practice 3 from 11PM-midnight with Aidan. He did stay up to watch the Qualifying from 2-3AM and slept until 11AM. The race is Sunday morning 1-3 AM our time. I hope to stay awake and watch it live. I watched qualifying when I got up this morning!

The dog decided I needed to get up a bit after 7AM to be fed but I had him get up my hubby to walk him. He let the girl sleep in! Silly dog. She got home a bit before 11PM after playing in the pep band at the high school football game. 

This morning was horses and she tried jumping again today. Just 2 poles crossed in an X low to the ground. Marshmallow did not want to jump but she got him to go over twice. Then did some trotting and a canter. I managed to not hit the record button so missed her going over both times, but I did get to see it!

Peanut got some attention while I was in the sewing room this afternoon. I stitched up one of my 16 patch blocks in bright greens.

I stitched together the Crossed Canoe blocks and thank goodness I took a picture of the blocks laid out on the floor. I always manage to move things around but lots of checking the photo had me sew this one together how I planned. It is currently 36x54 and I think I want to add a little border to get it to a 40x60 size (ok, 42x60) for Project Linus. I'll piece the snowflake backing that I have left for this one and just need to figure out what color to use as a border. Any ideas? I think I know how I will walking foot quilt this one as well, outlining the middle canoe parts so it looks like a gentle curve. 

Linking up with the RSC Challenge.

No stitching?

 No real stitching this week but I did open a rubbermaid container and found more projects one night! I added 3 to the FALL 2022 UFO list since it closes tonight. I really, really want to add one more but since I have not technically started it, I can't add it to the list. 

The new additions to the list were all from the 1990's!

I had moved this stack around before and had no clue where the pattern was. I had a thought, I know it was back when I started quilting around 1992. My first quilt was a four patch baby quilt from an Introduction to Quilting 101, The Basics. It is hanging on a crib in my Mom's house up in Vermont. I think I had a friend getting married and I thought about making a quilt for a gift. I knew it was in this book and based on the pattern and the blocks completed so far... I think it is Sunrise Surprise. 

The second one is a bunch of 2 inch squares that go from dark to light and then there are butterfly's that are fused onto the quilt. Might this get some attention this quarter?

Then there is this cute little quilt of a birdhouse. I still think it is cute despite the foundation piecing. Maybe I can deal with the persnickity piecing enough to get this one finished? I found I really dislike this technique but maybe I can come up with something?

There was also a couple of jelly rolls with some patterns in that bin. One is a Cactus Wreath in red and green that I really want to make. Alas, it is not started so I can't add it to the list but I might just jump in and make it anyway! I do need to find or get a few yards of background for that one.  

I also found 4 unfinished stockings in a victorian style. I think they just need a cuff added to them. Maybe I can get them finished up in time for Christmas this year? We will see.

My week has been busy. I took Emily to scouts Monday night and got a little crochet in while they worked on their Silver Award. Emily had her fall band concert on Tuesday. They have a new music teacher this year but we were lucky to have had her for a few years in elementary school when she first started teaching. The chorus preformed 3 songs, then the beginning band did a few beginning notes with their 3-5 weeks of playing their instruments. The advanced band played last and after their first song, the clapping and cheering was awesome and they sounded great! 

Wednesday both kids were late pick ups with book club and the older one volunteering for a bit at the middle school. Thursday, I rode Elwood for my 4th riding lesson. Trotting and posting and I can feel the inner thigh a bit today but not bad. I headed to Boot Barn after my lesson and got some cowboy boots! An early birthday present for me.  Now I can wear them to the barn instead of my sneakers. After that,  some errands to the pet store, gas in the car, through the car wash and a vacuum inside then home to eat a late lunch before I had to go get the kids from school. Hubby got a new fryer, so he grabbed some groceries and we did a fish and onion ring fry last night for dinner. After cleaning up, Emily and I took Bear for a walk to get some of his energy out. He really wanted to be in the kitchen with the fish but we ended up shutting him and Emily in her room so no one got splattered with oil.

Tonight, it is a one kid pick up after school. The other is staying and will head over and join the high school band playing in the stands at the football game tonight. This was to be my week last week before Ian changed up the schedule by a week.

The kids are off Monday but it is a teacher workday to enter all the grades for the first quarter. Since they don't like being taken out of school, I scheduled dentist appointments for them in the morning Monday and doctor yearly checkups for the afternoon! Guess I need to take the day off too!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I started a new hand quilting project this week. I pulled out a very old quilt top - my Bear Paw from the late 1990's. It wanted quilted feathers and I wanted to make sure I was up to the challenge. I pulled out a template I have had since then and never used - got on clearence for $3 if you can believe it! It has been a great relaxing therapy this week with the storms going through in south Florida.

A photo of the crib quilt when I was layering it for quilting.

Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

I watched Hocus Pocus 2 on Friday - I love the original and the second movie did not disappoint! The kids went to Grandma's to help with her yard pick up on Friday since they were off school. We are waiting on the F1 race to start on the rain delay. I'll be adding some stitches to these feathers while watching.

RSC Saturday

What a week! We were spared any issues from Hurricane Ian but so many people in the state of Florida were devastated and their households and businesses are gone. There are still issues with flooding in the south and central Florida and the clean up and rebuilding of lives will take a long time. 

Some cooler weather moved in after the storm and we enjoyed breezy temps in the mid 60's all day Thursday. The kids loved being out in the back yard with those temps. See - I do have 2 kids and they were out taking turns chasing the dog to get some of his energy out.

Today, the below normal temps again reined, and she had a pleasant upper 70's to ride in.

While she was out giving Bear the dog a bath with her Dad, I stole into the sewing room with Peanut the cat and picked some fabrics to finish off the Crossed Canoe blocks. I picked 2 bright greens and a deep purple to give me 25 blocks. I messed up on the pink and yellow months and cut too many parts out so had some extra blocks from the 20 I had planned. I am going to go with a 5x5 setting and will have the kids play with the color layout and move the blocks around a bit before stitching them together.  Now I'm wondering if they need sashing and cornerstone blocks? Hmmmmmm.

I need to pop out and get some fiberfill so I can finally finish my light blue pumpkin for the table scrap challenge.  

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

OMG for October

 After assembling the Fall UFO list in the last post, I decided that this month will be tackling the Crossed Canoe quilt blocks. I need to make 2 more in bright green. I made a mistake cutting extra yellow and pink on those months, but I think I'm just going to include them in the quilt and make it a little bigger. I'll move things around once I get the final 2 blocks made.

 This month, I plan to finish the last 2 (or 3? maybe 5x5 instead of 4x6?) blocks, piece it into a top and get it quilted and bound. 

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal for October.